Christmas Night
by boshrocks
Summary: A row with his father leads his feet away from the manor and to the doorstep of an old forgotten friend. one-shot. may write a sequel if people like it enough. please like it enough.


Draco didn't know where his feet were taking him. It was very dark and cold and he had stormed out without his cloak. He just wanted to walk; he didn't care where he went.

As he walked he thought back to what he'd be doing if he was still at school. Laughing at Potter and Weasley in their ridiculous Weasley jumpers that fat little Mother Weasley always made for them for Christmas. It was the first Christmas since they'd left the school, and Draco missed Hogwarts. Especially at Christmas time. Hagrid lugging the twelve Christmas trees into the great hall. Teachers sitting with students since there were always so few staying for the holidays. Snowball fights which always got very competitive when they were against Potter and Weasley. Dumbledore wearing the crazy hats from the wizard crackers. Making up rude versions of the muggle and wizard Christmas carols. The Christmas Truce. All of it was a laugh.

It was Christmas Day. Snow swirled around him as he took a path he thought he had forgotten. After a mile he stopped, the tree by his side. He reached out without looking and felt the marks in the wood. They were still there, after about ten years. Gently he traced them. Felt the H, and the G, the plus sign, then D and M. Finally he traced the heart around them. Rough work, but the best they could do. He chuckled, his breath fogging out before him, and he remembered how she'd teased him about how unsymmetrical the heart was. It was just like her; a perfectionist to the very last, even at nine years old.

Now he knew where his feet were instinctively taking him.

Another mile down the path took him there. The village was smaller than he remembered, and could almost have come out of a storybook. Her house wasn't far off the main street but he paused outside the door, wondering if he'd be welcome.

From inside he could hear could hear Judy Garland crooning out Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and peeking in at the front window he saw Hermione alone, curled up in a big armchair with a book by the roaring fire and as he looked, she sighed and a big tear rolled down her cheek.

He knew why. Almost to the day was the anniversary of the Last Battle against Voldemort, and although that day had been a victory, the sheer number of losses was staggering and didn't make it feel like a victory. Technically it wasn't a victory for him since he had been forced to side with his father and Voldemort but his heart had been with Potter and his followers. As a punishment to Hermione for a recent bout of bravery and defiance Voldemort had captured her parents and murdered them in front of her. It had been the final spark for her and it had been she who led the renewed attack which had brought them victory. And the look on her face as her parents were killed had been the final straw for Draco; he had turned on his father and joined Hermione's Famous Last Stand as the charge was later called. Draco smiled remembering the thrill he had felt in betraying his father, and the glowing smile Hermione, covered in dirt and blood but still beautiful to him, had sent his way when it was all over.

Throwing caution to the icy wind he knocked on the door. When she opened it the forced company-smile slipped from her face and a slight look of surprise took over. It was a mark of her current loneliness that she stepped back and let him in.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly.

She looked at him and he saw the pain in her eyes. "Fight with the Malfoy elder?" she said. Draco nodded. "I'll make some tea." She said, going into the kitchen.

Draco remembered her house. Small, old, creaky; a typical English country village cottage. He went through to the living room, she had decorated it for Christmas and it was bright and warm enough, but the lack of company told its own story.

She came back with a tray loaded with tea things and set them down on the sturdy coffee table before the sofa. She sat and poured the tea. He sat uneasily beside her.

"So what happened?" she asked, passing over the mug, not needing to ask him how he took his tea.

"The usual, I disagreed with him."

"He still doesn't like you to defy him, huh? What was the jarring issue?"

"For weeks it's been my career. He wants me to go into teaching, just so I can manipulate future generations of wizards into what he still believes to be right."

"Still knocking about Voldemort's principles then? What do you want to do?"

"I want to go into wizard law. But that means more study. It's the only thing I've ever considered doing with my life though."

Hermione smiled. "You'd enjoy it. It's great fun."

"I forgot you chose it as your career. How are you finding it?"

"I love it. Money's always tight though. But that should improve once the study's finished and I get a job putting it to use. Right now I'm interning and earning some money, but not much."

"Is it too late for me to join up after the holidays?"

"I shouldn't think so. You got O's on all your NEWT's, right? I can put in a good word for you, if you're set on it."

"You're an angel, Hermione."

She chuckled. "I don't know about that, but there are advantages to being teachers' pet. I'll just call in a favour."

"Let me guess you've put in extra work and won cases for your teachers?"

She smiled and blushed a little. "Something like that. What are you going to tell your father?"

"I have no idea. He'll likely disinherit me, as he's promised if I do choose law."

"You can live here if you like. At least until you're earning enough money to set up on your own."

"You sure?"

"We're old friends. And friends help each other out," she said simply.

Draco stared into the fire guiltily. "Speaking of friends, where are yours? Where's Potter and Weasley? I expected this place to be crawling with them, or you at the Burrow."

"I have to have a separate Christmas from them. I can never go over for events and holidays anymore, I just end up screaming at Percy or being used as a guinea pig by the twins." She tucked her feet under her.

"It can't be that bad."

"Oh it is. As you know Percy switched his allegiance to the ministry during the war and turned on his family and everything they stand for. He's a pompous arse and although he did come back to our side and fought for us in the end, I can't get within ten feet of him without arguing for at least an hour with him. He makes me angrier than you ever did. And besides, when I last went there for an event, all the boys hit on me. I did post Harry as a watchdog, but then he made a pass at me," she laughed.

"I thought he was gay?" Draco looked confused despite his laughter.

"He is. I think the twins spiked the punch. Mind you I doubt they got much data, they were hitting on me too. And none of them remembered it the next day."

"What else happened?"

"Well I woke up the next morning in bed with the twins, although how they got me there, and removed all our clothes, is still a mystery to us."

"Oh, you're a naughty girl now." Draco looked very pleased.

She flushed again. "No. And I wasn't drunk either, so I suspect they charmed me. But whether it was magical or muggle, I don't know. I did have a theory that abduction was involved in it somewhere."

"Considering it was the twins, I'm not really surprised. Hang on, it wasn't your first time was it?"

"No." he noticed that she looked down and bit her lip, just as she used to whenever she wasn't being truthful.

"It was, wasn't it? You lost it to the twins?" he couldn't help laughing.

She looked up at him. "Honestly, I don't know. I could still be one. I mean, there was no evidence of it in the bed the next morning. Yeah we were all nude and fairly intimate, but there was no evidence of sweat or semen or blood, which you would expect if intercourse had happened."

"Blood?"

"Don't you know about that? Usually when a girl loses her virginity she bleeds a little as the hymen is broken, although these days the hymen can be broken by riding a bike or a broom. But didn't you know that? You've deflowered many virgins in your school career, or so you reputation said."

"I may have had the reputation as the Slytherin Sex God but in all honesty I'm still mostly pure. I'm waiting for the right girl."

"I forgot you could be sensitive." She smiled, taking his hand.

"I blame you. I'm a gentleman and I respect women."

"I miss the nice version of you. Remember when I fell out of Halfway Tree and you carried me all the way back here, because I'd hurt my ankle?"

"It's not like you weighed anything. We were nine. And you were hurt, what else could I do?" he asked, embarrassed.

"You could have left me there and run for help. Like I told you to."

"Like I'd really leave you alone when you're hurt."

"Why did you have to change at school? We could have stayed friends."

"It would have got back to my father. It was hard enough keeping it secret from him before we went to school."

"I remember. It's a good thing we learnt how to climb trees; got us out of a lot of tight spots, that did." Hermione grinned.

Draco chuckled. "We had fun didn't we?"

"You know, I think I had more fun with you than I did with Harry and Ron."

"School wasn't much fun without you. Imagine if you hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor. Let's say, hypothetically, that you'd been sorted into Slytherin. What kind of person do you think you'd be now?"

"Hm, well, I wouldn't be friends with Harry and Ron, I wouldn't have gone through everything Harry put me through when he decided to be a hero. I probably wouldn't have been in the Resistance."

"I don't know about that, you would probably still have joined it. And you'd probably have pulled me into it from the start. You'd still have been in Dumbledore's Army."

"The DA wouldn't have existed. I came up with the idea. On the whole, I don't think I could have been a Slytherin. You, however, could have been a Gryffindor."

"Can you imagine what my father would say if I was sorted into Gryffindor?"

"He definitely wouldn't be pleased. But you did have all the traits needed for my house."

"While you also had some needed for mine." Draco looked at her carefully, studying her face. "I used to watch you from the Slytherin table; you were usually laughing, or fighting with Weasley. Sometimes I'd catch you looking back at me, and you'd send me a very small smile with very sad eyes."

"I missed you, that's why."

"Really?"

Hermione nodded. "You were my best friend. My only friend before Hogwarts. And as much as I love my other friends, none of them understood me as well as you did. None of them can read my moods like you could. They still don't know when I'm lying to them, and you always do."

"'Fess up. Are you lonely, My?"

"I may have lots of friends, but without my Drake, I am lonely. Loneliness isn't being alone, it's feeling alone. I was so much smarter than them I could never have an intelligent conversation or debate with them, not like I can with you. I have a different kind of fun with them, but it's a friendship based on what they want to do, not what I want to do."

"You could have ditched them ages ago."

"Not after all the times they've saved my life and I've saved theirs. Besides, they won't let me go. And I don't want to let them go. I didn't want to let you go either, but I understood why I had to. I appreciate the way you stuck by me for those first few months, even if we did have to meet in secret."

"It's a good thing the library's big, huh? I'm sorry for everything I said to you. I hated having to be your bully."

"I knew you didn't mean it. It shocked me the first time you called me mudblood. But it was convincing and necessary. Your father's only interested in your public image so you had to build yourself a reputation."

"Did you ever hate me for what I did to you? It's been bugging me for years. I didn't want you to hate me. I couldn't bear that."

"I couldn't hate you. I was angry sometimes but I knew you didn't mean it. I just had to remind myself, in case I ever forgot."

"What about third year?" he smirked.

"Third year was difficult for me. I was majorly stressed. Face it; I was taking every subject they offered us. And the Buckbeak case wasn't going well. And I was secretly worried that Buckbeak had really hurt you as badly as you made out he had. And you were being such a jerk about everything I just had to hit you."

"You've got a hell of a right hook. How'd it feel?"

"Liberating. I felt very guilty afterwards but, boy, you deserved it. You can't deny that."

"I wasn't going to. I know I was an ass about Hagrid and Buckbeak but my pride had been hurt, I couldn't let it slide."

"I know. You inherited that from your father. He's a proud man too."

"Is it really ok for me to stay here?"

"Sure. I can make you up a bed on the sofa, and you can borrow a pair of my dad's pyjamas for the night. I would offer to let you sleep in their room but I haven't had a chance to clear it out yet, and there's only two bedrooms here."

Draco wanted very much to ask about her room, but he realised he'd probably be pushing his luck a bit with that. "I'll go back to the mansion tomorrow morning and get my things."

"I can help you if you want."

"Thanks. But it's probably best if you didn't show your face at the mansion."

Hermione smiled, understanding. Then the smile grew mischievous. "I could always apparate into your room and out again without them noticing."

"That would be awfully sneaky of you, My."

"Please, I've hung around with Harry and Ron for almost a decade, sneakiness is second nature with me now." Hermione smirked a very adorably cheeky smirk as she got up and took their empty mugs back to the kitchen.

Draco watched her go affectionately. She looked back at him from the kitchen and smiled warmly. He felt his heart rate increase, and felt his cheeks grow warm. Hermione smiled with her eyes. She let them speak for her, and the blush on her own smooth cheeks spoke volumes too.

Draco didn't know why but something inside him said that he would be staying in this cottage for a long time. And if there were only two bedrooms in the place and one of them wasn't cleared out then that left only…hers. There was no way she was going to make him sleep on the sofa forever.

"Hey, Drake," the girl in question called from the kitchen, "how about we celebrate Christmas tomorrow? Do it properly."

"Yeah, sounds good." He grinned as she poked her head round an old beam supporting the ceiling bestowing upon him a glowing smile that almost made his heart stop.

Since it was late they only stayed up chatting for a little while longer. When their yawns started to synchronise to each others Hermione got up and went to the airing cupboard and brought out a pillow and some blankets. "I'll just go fetch some pj's for you."

Draco smiled as she went upstairs, the pillow and blankets in his hands. From upstairs came the sounds of things being moved. Then something fell rather heavily and there was the sound of something smashing.

"Everything alright up there, Hermione?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine!" she replied a little too brightly.

A moment later she came back down and chucked a pair of striped blue pyjamas at him. He caught them exchanging a grin with her. She blushed, cleared her throat and was halfway through turning to dash off to the safety of upstairs when she realised he was still standing there. He'd dropped the pillow and blankets when she'd thrown him the pyjamas and upon seeing this Hermione snorted with laughter.

Marching over to him she bent down and picked them up, hiding her blush at the proximity they were standing at when she straightened up with them.

She managed to hide her embarrassment pretty well, although he still saw it. "Honestly, you're as useless as Ron sometimes. Can't you boys do anything by yourselves?" she smirked his own smirk back at him, observing his grin and that glint in those pale eyes which had suddenly decided to accompany the grin. Hermione rolled her eyes and leant over the sofa, setting out the makeshift bed for him.

"There are some things I can do without aid."

Hermione became aware of a strong hand gripping her tightly but gently on her hip. The fingers of the other hand were slowly walking their way up her spine, making her skin tingle and her breath catch in her throat. Eventually the hand reached her shoulder and gently but firmly pulled her back upright.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've kissed you, Miss Granger?"

He spoke quietly, his mouth very close to her ear. So close that his breath tickled and she found it hard to breathe properly. His body was pressed against hers, not forcefully but enough so she could feel the heat coming from his skin and the contours of his Quidditch defined chest.

"Hm, it must be eight years at least. The day we got our Hogwarts letters if I recall correctly." She attempted to reply coyly but made no attempt to get him to let her go.

"You're forgetting the Yule Ball aren't you?" ever so gently he kissed her neck, just below her earlobe.

Hermione couldn't help the gasp that escaped from her lips. "Yes you showed your true Slytherin sneakiness that night."

"Mistletoe does come in handy sometimes."

"Careful, Malfoy, you don't want to overstep your bounds, before it's safe to do so, do you?" she turned her head towards him, her lips now centimetres from his.

"Granger, I'm a Slytherin. Crossing lines is what we do best."

"No arguments there."

Centimetres were narrowed down to millimetres. Draco hesitated, studying her face, wondering if he dared close that tiny gap.

After a moment that felt like an age he loosened his grip and she turned to face him. She was beaming at him again, proud this time, and a tender softness sparkled in her warm eyes.

"See, I knew you could be decent." She whispered. "I'm glad your feet found their way back to my door, Drake. It means a lot to have you back in my life."

Reaching up a little she planted a soft affectionate kiss on his cheek, bid him goodnight and Merry Christmas, before heading upstairs.

"Um, Hermione? Why the hell is Malfoy in your bed?"

Blearily Hermione opened her eyes to the incredibly puzzled, angry and horrified faces of Harry, Ron and Ginny. Somehow she became aware of a rather large shape draped half over her. The shape, upon more awake observation, turned out to be blond, a man, and Draco Malfoy. The time, she noticed when she glanced at her bedside table, was 10:30 and then she remembered that she'd forgotten that the Christmas celebration with her friends was happening on Boxing Day, aka today, and that she'd told them to come at ten thirty.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Hermione told her friends crossly. Hermione wasn't the nicest person first thing in the morning.

"Uh, we did. But I guess you didn't hear us on account of you being up all night screwing the enemy."

"Ronald, he is not the enemy. He happens to be my oldest and right now dearest friend."

"Besides if we had knocked you'd have just sneaked him out of the back door and we'd never know you were boinking your bully." Ginny smirked, privately pleased that Hermione was apparently finally getting some. Even if it was Malfoy.

"I'm not you Gin. Besides, if I had slept with him don't you think we'd both be naked right now?"

"That…a good point." Harry said. "Why is he in your bed then?"

About this time the voices had woken Draco up. He leant up a little, the main thing in his field of vision being Hermione, and smiled.

She looked back at him, a bemused look of confusion on her face. "That's a good question. When I went to sleep he was downstairs using the sofa as a bed. Draco care to explain how the situation changed?"

"Got me. Sometimes I sleepwalk, maybe that's how I got here."

"What? Your subconscious mind drew your body to me because of what…almost happened last night?"

Vaguely Hermione became aware of the exchanged looks of her friends. She'd almost let it slip. They weren't ready for that development yet, first she had to give them baby steps. On the other hand this was a pretty big baby step for them to take.

Oh well, better be honest.

Well, mostly honest.

And, Merlin, how was she supposed to explain him to the village, all of which took a keen interest in the late dentists' only daughter. They'd be dropping in all day to wish her a happy Christmas and while they knew the other three idiots they didn't know Draco.

The gossip was going to be murder. Especially if little old Mrs Clover next door got a whiff of a hot young man living with her sweet little Hermione. Mrs Clover was a substitute grandmother and had for a long time planned for Hermione to marry her grandson who was not only dull and ugly but also about a decade older than Hermione was, and though he was a nice guy he was most unappealing.

All it would take for her to become the Loose (or Scarlett, as Ron would put it) Woman of the village was Draco fetching the milk in his pyjamas. Actually all it would take would be him entering and exiting her house every day.

Merlin save us. It was going to be a long few days.

But it would be worth it so long as he stayed with her.

Right now she had bigger problems in the form of three fairly ticked best friends all of whom were demanding a thorough explanation.

First things first…


End file.
